What Was Jawan All About?

There is no plot, no central story line or theme.
It appears Atlee felt if he put a Shah Rukh Khan (there are two of them actually!) on screen doing just about anything, the film would sell, sighs Nitin Sathe.

A friend told me Jawan had collected a record amount of money in the first two days after its release and was a must see, and so I went.

I was pretty sure that Shah Rukh Khan, under Atlee's direction, couldn't go wrong. I was soon to be surprised!

What a movie it turned out to be! When I began to write about what I had seen, it became an ordeal too!

All I remember is a lot of gunfire, trucks and cars taking the aerial route, as Ravi Shastri would put it, helicopters whizzing past the screen...

Most of the scenes in the movie had a déjà vu effect for me, as if they had been copy pasted from OTT serials and films.

There is no plot, no central story line or theme. It appears Atlee felt if he put a Shah Rukh Khan (there are two of them actually!) on screen doing just about anything, the film would sell.

And it appears Jawan has just done that. Some way to rake in moolah!

The film lacks imagination; rather it is more in the realm of the unimaginable!

At most places, the lighter and satirical parts in between the cacophony of the film were expected to make one laugh; I didn't even manage a smile!

Come on, Mr Khan, you could have shot better quality fight and crash sequences in a film that you have invested countless crores in.

Mr Atlee, don't you have experts on your team who advise you about the uniforms armymen, policemen and others in uniform wear? It appeared that the costumes have been hired from stores which are made used by nukkad-nataks!

One wonders what makes the movie click. It is raking in crores as I write. I am sure Shah Rukh Khan's fan following has helped him recover from a lull in his career.

He sure is a crowd puller, but if he continues like this, he will have disappointed fans to answer.

After being taken for a ride in this film, they may think twice before spending 300 plus rupees on a ticket next time.

I endured the movie amidst the hooting and shouting of die-hard Shah Rukh fans, squirming in my seat from one climax to the other, waiting for the interval where I could get a well deserved rest.

Part 2 of the film unleashed more garish noise, gore and over-acting and made me wonder if I should continue through the ordeal. I carried on with the hope of getting something positive to write about this film.

No such luck. The tamasha stretched to the wire. And just when you think it is all over, enters Mr Sanjay Dutt on his famous Vespa from Lage Raho.... What is he in the movie for, I wonder.

Mr Atlee, what was the need to show gruesome scenes of bodies, eyes popping and tongues hanging?

If you have done it for the OOOH-AHA effect, I am sorry, it isn't in good taste.

All in all, Jawan has no head, no tail and Atlee projects Shah Rukh Khan as a demi-god southern style.

A blockbuster? What it ended up doing was busting my eardrums!

A movie one can best avoid unless you want to contribute to Mr Khan's coffers!

Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) served the Indian Air Force for 35 years.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com